The Knight, the Dragon, the Princess, the Wizard
by Masquer-of-Heart
Summary: An alternate universe of Fairy Tail, in which Zeref was a powerful mage-king that has just been overthrown. The existence of magic users is now jeopardized as a long repressed people rise up against their oppressors. Also, I will be romantically pairing Erza and Natsu, Gray and Juvia, and Lucy...we'll see. Cheers.


The day Zeref died, the age of magic came crashing down. Throughout his long, brutal, and tyrannical rule, Zeref had proposed the idea that the ability to use magic made wizards superior to others, and thus a long history of persecution began against non-magic users. Many people were massacred by bouts of fire and lightning bent to the magicians will, and demons were summoned to take control of people and keep entire kingdoms under control. But eventually Zeref overstepped his bounds, and the people rose against their masters. Breaking their chains and drawing their swords, forged from iron, the only magical resistant material, the existence of anti-magic guilds and warriors began. The conflict between these anti-magic and magic guilds sparked battles all across the world, as the rebellion strove to end the long rule and misuse of magic. Before they knew it, however, the rebellion took on the form of a beast and lost control, becoming known as the Terror. Fear gripped the people after seeing what magic had done for so long, and as such Terror became the byword of the day. The anti-magic guilds began attacking anything that was associated with magic. They hunted down the dragons and spirits, destroyed magics and shops, sacked temples and put any wizards they found to the torch. Magic was a curse, and to be marked it was to be marked with death.  
And now our story begins, on the very night Zeref died and the entire world was thrown into the chaos of a revolution...

The darkness stole into the village as silent as a plague, a mass of dark blurs, hoods drawn up over their faces and advancing with knives in their hands. When they passed the first houses, four would break off from the main group and enter. Nothing would be heard and the four would emerge with blood-stained knives and struggling children in their arms.  
And they swept through the village, pillaging houses one by one. Inside one house, however, was a sleeping girl with crimson red hair, resting peacefully. And abruptly, in the middle of the night, Erza Scarlet awoke, strangely perturbed and feeling as if something was out of place.

Her eyes flickered open, and Erza stared around in bewilderment at her familiar room. Something was wrong, she felt. Inexplicably, terribly wrong. She stared around, noting the position of her room. The desk, chair, and her books were all in the same place, one still lying open from where she had fallen asleep reading it.  
And then she realized; her father wasn't snoring. In fact, there was no other sound in the entire house save for a quiet creaking on the floor. She knew what this creaking was, for it only happened when someone was walking around on the floor. She sniffed the air, smelling something strange to her, and then she heard the faint screams of children outside her house. For a reason unknown to her, Erza felt afraid, and knew that something bad was going to happen.  
But it was too late, for just then the men burst into her door. She saw the flash of steel with blood still dripping from it, and she screamed, a high pitched sound that instilled fear in the heart of any who heard it.  
One clamped his hand over her mouth, muffling her, and the others grabbed her by the legs and arms and hoisted her into the air. They swung her over their shoulders, and she began to kick and punch then. They struggled for a brief moment as the men struggled to get her under control, then one of them hit her head with something. Dazed now, she stopped struggling and they gathered her and took her outside and threw her in with the other children.  
But her scream had alerted the rest of the houses. Villagers poured out, and now spells began to arc through the air towards the men in cloaks. Erza attempted to stand, but someone backhanded her across the face and told her to stay down.  
She gritted her teeth in frustration, trying to cut through the daze in her mind. Just then, she felt herself being hoisted atop a shoulder and carried away. She was thrown in the back of a wagon, and then she heard the crack of a whip and the whinny of horses as the wagon sped away. On the horizon, the lights of her home, her village, and her dead parents rapidly raced away.

**Author's Note: So, that was the first chapter of my story and it sets off the setting for this alternate universe of Fairy Tail. It goes into her imprisonment as a child, offering more commentary on that event. Of course, I am changing around some events but that's just who I am. I like to change things. Anyways, read, review, comment, please include anything you would like me to imrpove upon and I will try to get back to you. Cheers! **


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